Description

A groundbreaking new study based on extensive and original data that examines court policies and proceedings during the COVID-19 pandemic to uncover the realities of power, procedure, and reform in state civil courts.

The COVID-19 pandemic changed the work practices of nearly every industry around the globe, forcing institutions to quickly adapt to the evolving public health emergency. The state court systems in the United States—from trial courts to state supreme courts—were no exception. In response to the crisis, courts were forced to make dramatic changes to the way they processed cases. The alterations ranged from selecting which types of cases should be prioritized or delayed to choices about which standards for filing documents and appearing at hearings could be relaxed. Petitions for emergency protective orders sped through the courts out of necessity, while small claims were processed far more slowly. Courts also allowed digital filings and video and phone call appearances without special permission. As Alyx Mark shows, COVID acted as an accelerant for procedural change and laid bare the different approaches to administrative decision-making that characterize the state courts. The distinctive and unifying case study created by the pandemic witnessed decisions that challenge prevailing explanations of how power manifests and process operates in state judiciaries.

The legal administrative changes brought significant differences to light in how state court systems design and implement policies that affect the administration of justice, revealing the degree to which such decisions are centralized. In states like Kentucky and Massachusetts, for example, high courts tended to craft orders that gave lower courts little room to make choices about their operations at the local level, reflective of these systems’ top-down approaches to court administration. Administrative orders distributed by Kentucky’s trial courts thus instructed judges to conduct all proceedings remotely, specifically attributing this policy choice to provisions that were made explicit in their supreme court’s orders.

In contrast, other supreme courts’ orders reflected the more diffuse nature of administrative power in their systems. Lower courts in Florida and Missouri interpreted their supreme courts’ orders to mean they were empowered to develop the administrative policies they deemed most appropriate. Given the discretion afforded to them, lower courts in Florida interpreted their high court’s wishes liberally, with their administrative orders offering judges the opportunity to make decisions about the appropriateness of remote hearings at the individual level—permitting judges to determine when, if, or wherever such hearings would be possible or practicable. Exploring these differences, which COVID made visible in a unique way, Mark provides a more comprehensive understanding of the role that the structure of administrative institutions plays in designing, implementing, and sustaining procedural change.

Informed by an extensive data collection effort—encompassing administrative orders disseminated across state court hierarchies, as well as insights from nearly sixty interviews with elite court actors who participated in constructing and implementing these orders during the pandemic—Courts Unmasked uses the COVID-19 pandemic as the vehicle for exposing and unpacking the realities of power and process in state civil courts and what this might mean for the future of civil justice reform.

Langue

en

Version

Broché

Date de sortie initiale

28 janvier 2025

Nombre de pages

160

Personnes impliquées

Auteur principal

Alyx Mark

Editeur principal

University Press Of Kansas

Informations sur le fabricant

Nom du fabricant

Mare Nostrum Group B.V.

Adresse électronique du fabricant

[email protected]

Informations sur le fabricant

Les informations du fabricant ne sont actuellement pas disponibles

Autres spécifications

Hauteur de l’emballage

13 mm

Largeur d’emballage

140 mm

Largeur du produit

140 mm

Livre d‘étude

Non

Longueur d’emballage

216 mm

Longueur du produit

216 mm

Poids de l’emballage

311 g

EAN

EAN

9780700638260

Sécurité des produits

Opérateur économique responsable dans l’UE

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Vous trouverez cet article :

Catégories

Hommes et société

Droit

Politique

Droit général

Autorités centrales et fédérales

Administration municipale et communale

Systèmes juridiques

Tribunaux et procédures

Livres

Disponibilité

Disponible à l’adresse suivante

Langue

Anglais

Pays

Les États-Unis

Type de livre

Paperback